Ryan's Writings…at Mason

After reading Mark Briggs’s ninth chapter of “Journalism Next,” I realized that all of the emphasis my parents and professors have put on time management will actually benefit my future career as a journalist.

Who’d of thunk, right?

Time management is essential to journalism, especially now that journalism is digital. We have e-mail, e-invites, calendars, blogs and social media to keep up with along with our already hectic lives.

So, it makes sense that journalists need to use the tools — which are so readily available — that help your trim down the time spent on the Internet, so we can be more productive and efficient.

One tool that Briggs mentions, and I use, is Google’s Gmail. Gmail is categorized as an “office suite” because it is a home for all of your contacts, e-mail, documents, calendars, spreadsheets and more. Even your GooglePlus account is synced with your Gmail, making Google the place to go for social networking as well.

And there are many more tools similar to Google, that can help manage your life and work in a more efficient way. The one’s Briggs mentions are:

1. OfficeLive: Microsoft Office tools like Word, Excel and Powerpoint
2. Zoho: provides nearly every collaboration tool a journalist could need, and most of the tools are free.
3. Instapaper: saves Web pages to read later on (similar to bookmarking a page)
4. Remember the Milk: to-do lists
5. Oh don’t forget: a reminder tool that sends SMS to your cell phone or smartphone
6. Evernote: Note taking and task list tool that includes audio if you use your cell phone.
7. Jott: an audio to-do list
8. Dropbox: storage for files and documents
9. Backpack: document sharing, organization, notes, calendars and task lists
10. Basecamp: Project management for teams
11. Socrata: used to create databases
12. MindMeister: a “mind-mapping software” to use for brainstorming ideas